Badbury Forest

Walking through Badbury Forest feels like stepping back into someone's private woodland - the sort of place where you half expect to bump into a gamekeeper checking traps. It's a proper working forest just outside Faringdon, with mature hardwoods and a network of tracks that loop through surprisingly varied terrain for what looks like a modest patch on the map.

The main appeal is straightforward: this is decent walking country without the crowds you'd find at more famous Oxfordshire spots. The trees are tall enough to make you feel genuinely away from it all, and there's real woodland floor - moss, roots, the lot - underfoot. You can knock out a solid two-hour walk if you're thorough, or just take a shorter loop if the weather turns. The tracks are generally well-maintained, though it pays to have decent boots after rain.

Historically minded visitors will find less here than at nearby attractions - it's not an ancient site in the dramatic sense - but the forest itself has that deep English quality that creeps up on you. Families with reasonably confident walkers will get the most from it. Young children might find it a bit samey after thirty minutes.

If you're based at Faringdon Grange or The Real Campsite just a couple of miles away, Badbury works perfectly as a morning walk before heading elsewhere. It's the sort of place that slots into a wider Oxfordshire itinerary rather than a destination in itself, but that's not a criticism. Sometimes you just need a proper forest.